EXCLUSIVE: BBC chair Samir Shah told staff that talk of a Conservative takeover at a British broadcaster was “bizarre” during a town hall where there was rioting over Donald Trump-shaped crisis.
As Deadline reported on Monday.a theory has taken root at the BBC that a board member Robbie GibbConservative Prime Minister Theresa May's former press secretary tried to undermine the corporation and question its impartiality.
BBC insiders believe this is a dangerous moment for the corporation after the resignation of the director general Tim Davy and news director Deborah Turness on the botched editing of Donald Trump's January 6 speech.
Concerns grew during an all-hands meeting Monday morning, during which employees openly questioned Gibb's actions. In written comments, staffers asked how Gibb could be a model of impartiality given his political connections. They questioned whether the BBC could free itself from Conservative bias if Gibb remained on the board. One insider said there had been a “huge amount of comments against Gibb.”
According to several sources, Shah responded sharply to these concerns, telling staff that it was “disrespectful” to attack individual board members, saying they were “people who care about the BBC and its values.” One insider said Shah dismissed fears of a right-wing conspiracy as “bizarre” and referred to “conspiracy theories.”
A friend of Gibb's told Deadline that the coup theory “is absolute nonsense.” The person added that Gibb did not want Davy to resign and he remains a supporter of the BBC and its license fee funding model.
Gibb served on the BBC Board's Editorial Principles and Standards Committee, where he worked alongside external adviser Michael Prescott. Prescott wrote a scathing note that became the epicenter of this crisis. He exposed Donald Trump's poor editing and debunked the BBC's alleged anti-Israel bias in favor of transgender rights.
The argument is that while on the Editorial Policies and Standards Committee, Gibb organized content reviews that helped produce Prescott's memo. These reviews were conducted by David Grossman, who was on the BBC show at the same time as Gibb. News night in the 2000s and served as an advisor to the Editorial Principles and Standards Committee.
Prescott's document came into hand “Daily Telegraph” a newspaper that is no friend of the BBC, causing days of ugly headlines, social media fury and political attacks, not least from the Trump White House. Among those campaigning for Davy's head was Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister who eventually signed off on Gibb's appointment to the BBC board.
The BBC's helplessness in responding to Prescott's findings last week only strengthened the conspiracy. Sources said Turness, the head of BBC News, was banned by the board from making a statement and the turn of events is said to have left her furious.
While some have debated the idea of a coup, others believe it only reinforces the view that the BBC is not listening to critics who complain about its institutional bias. “We need to stop this right-wing conspiracy talk—it plays into their hands when we take the victim position,” one speaker said.
